If controller doesn't exist: search database for its name

rubyonrails-talk
1

I'll use my recipe example again. It would be nice if I could have my routes (I think) set up so that if somebody enters a a controller that doesn't exist a database search runs and looks for the controller name as one of the categories (for example the user enters http://www.com/italian). This is an existing category in the database so it would likely then redirect to www.com/categories/italian (and from there the categories controller would handle things).

Is this possible without violating any "rules"?

2

You would probably be able to do something by catching 404 errors in your application controller and then punting them off to a method that tries to guess what the user meant. Google for "Rails 404" for a few methods to try.

3

Michael Pavling wrote:

4

You can override method_missing. We used that approach at my last gig to grab userr-created content from a SharePoint site.

HTH, Bill